hidden room
by DarkWind13
Summary: Jack, Miko and Raf find a room in the basement that shows an upsetting secret. Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime, or Transformers, this is written for fun. Takes place after Predacon Rising so spoilers may be present.
1. Chapter 1

~Ok, this may be a bit dark so please be advised, you can let me know if it gets too bad. This takes place after Predacon Rising. Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers.~

It was a relatively quiet day at the base; Ratchet was trying to fix the groundbridge just in case they needed it, Jack was reading and Raf was playing on his laptop. Miko was the only one who seemed bored of the calm day.

"There has to be something we can do." She complained. Jack sighed, it was nearly impossible to keep Miko entertained for long.

"Miko, can't you just find something to do?" He argued, though, he wouldn't complain too much at something interesting happening either. Ratchet looked up from the computer he was working at.

"You know, I doubt you three have seen the whole base, including the basement." He suggested. He didn't see any reason it would be dangerous and he would like some time alone to work.

"Really? Come on guys, let's go!" Miko exclaimed excitedly. Jack looked at his book and put it down deciding he could use a break.

"Ok, Miko, I'll come to" Jack agreed. Raf closed his laptop.

"It would be interesting to see what's down there." He agreed standing up. Jack, Miko and Raf left the main room and went towards the basement.

The first thing they noticed when they got to the stairs leading to the basement was the musty smell.

"It seems like no one has been here for years." Raf noticed. This worried him, but he refused to share his concern with his friends. Jack noticed Raf's nervousness and smiled reassuringly at him. Miko was too interested in what was going on to realize what was going on and continued down the stairs with Jack and Raf following. When they finally managed to get to the bottom of the long staircase, they found themselves looking into a long, dark hallway.

"I think we should go back, I'm sure Ratchet doesn't think the hallway is this long and he'll worry if we get lost." Jack sighed.

"Come on, Jack, where's your sense of adventure? We won't be gone long." Miko argued.

"She does have a point Jack, I'm sure the hallway isn't much longer." Raf added, curiosity wad beginning to override his fear.

"Fine, but if we don't find the end of the hallway soon, we're going back." Jack reluctantly agreed. They used their phones as lights and stepped cautiously though the hallway. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of their footsteps. They walked though the dark hallway for ten minutes before finding a door. There were no turns they could make. Miko walked to the door and tried to open it.

"It's stuck." She complained. Raf went to help her and Jack tried to help to after rolling his eyes.

"We might as well just go back, there can't be anything interesting in there." Jack said, just as he finished his sentence, the door opened and the three teens fell into the room. Miko screamed at what she saw, Raf gasped and ran out of the room and Jack stared in shock. The room was filled with cybertronian corpses.

Jack finally snapped out of his shock enough to grab Miko's wrist.

"Come on, we need to tell Ratchet." He said and guided her out of the room. He saw Raf shaking just outside of the room and Miko hugged him.

"It will be ok. Let's just go tell Ratchet what we saw." Jack said reassuringly. Miko and Raf nodded. They ran down the hallway.

Ratchet was enjoying the quiet time to work, not that it was too loud before, he just liked being alone, in the back of his mind, he wondered what the children would find in the basement, he only passed it once but never went down there. He chuckled, they probably would find nothing really interesting but at least it gave him alone time and made them happy. He half-hoped that they found something just so he can see the excited look on their faces; after all, he did care about them, he just didn't like showing it. He frowned when he saw them running up, looking terrified. "Please let them be just over-reacting." He muttered under his breath wondering what scared the children so much.

"R-Ratchet!" Raf stuttered.

"What's wrong, Rafael?" Ratchet asked, kneeling down to comfort the children.

"I-In the basement…" Jack stuttered. "There were…" his voice trailed off.

"There were… bodies of cybertronians…. They were dead." Miko shook.

Ratchet gasped but knew that that he had to stay calm for the children.

"Where are they?" Ratchet asked, determined to keep his voice steady.

"In the basement…. There's a long hallway… at the end of the hallway there'll be a door… th-that's the room." Jack stuttered. Ratchet nodded.

"Stay here." He ordered and went down the stairs. He didn't want to tell the children, but he was terrified. He saw the door and walked though it.

"By the allspark!" He gasped, but when he inspected the bodies, there were no signs of illness. He couldn't tell what happened to them. He rushed to the computer and called the base on Cybertron, he knew, sadly, that Optimus was gone but he hoped to warn the others and get them to help figure out what happened. Bee answered the communicator.

"Ratchet?" Bee was surprised.

"Bumblebee, we have a problem. " Ratchet said quickly.

"What is it?" Bee asked seriously.

"We found…. Corpses of cybertronians at the base." Ratchet shuddered.

"We'll be right there." Bee promised and hung up. Ratchet looked at the children and noticed they were still shaking.

"It will be ok." He said. He closed his eyes and shook slightly.


	2. Chapter 2

Ratchet paced as he waited for the rest of Team Prime to arrive. He sighed, he knew Knockout, who had attempted to join the Autobots, had left already and he was actually grateful for that; true having another medic would have been helpful, but his crude jokes, would no doubt make the situation worse. He looked at Jack, Miko and Rafael; all of them were still in shock over the horrifying discovery. The others were expected to be at the base shortly, but they were not late. The minutes ticking by felt like hours given the situation though, so everyone was growing impatient.

"How long do you think they were there for?" Raf asked quietly, thinking about the corpses. Ratchet sighed, he didn't look to see since he wanted to get out of the room as soon as he saw the corpses. He didn't know what would comfort Raf more so he stayed quiet and pretended not to hear the question.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait much longer before the team came. Arcee, Bee and Bulkhead rushed to their partners right when they saw how scared their young friends looked.

"Raf, are you ok?" Bee asked, picking Raf up. Raf nodded shakily. Bee held him gently. Raf shook and Bee looked down. He felt so bad that his friend had to see such a horrifying sight, he hoped that he didn't need to look in the room.

"It will be ok, trust me." Bee reassured him.

Bulkhead went to Miko.

"It will be ok, I mean they were probably there for a bit. It's not like the person still goes here… right?" Bulkhead said, trying to reassure his young friend, but he was scared to. He looked around subtly, wondering if the person could still come here.

Arcee went to Jack.

"Hey, partner." She said, forcing a smile to reassure him. Jack looked at her; he was still shaking.

"How long do you think this had been going on?" He asked. Arcee sighed.

"I don't know." Arcee replied sadly. "I'm sure it will get better though."

Ratchet sighed. "I think it's best that you guys come with me to see the problem." He looked away, wishing he didn't have to make such a request.

"Who will stay here with the children, I don't like the idea of leaving them alone." Arcee replied.

"We'll be ok, Arcee." Miko argued. Ratchet frowned; he didn't like the idea of leaving the kids alone, even if he was sure the person wouldn't come back.

"I will remain with the children, then you can show me you return with the others so I can inspect the room." Ultra Magnus suggested, though his tone of voice indicated that it was more of an order than a suggestion. Ratchet nodded.

"Alright, I will get you when we are done." He replied and left the room with the others, not including Ultra Magnus or the children.

Ratchet led the team to the room. Bee let out a shocked cry, Arcee covered her mouth in shock, Bulkhead stepped back and Smokescreen just stared in shock. Ratchet sighed, he wished he didn't have to go to the room again, let alone bring anyone else there. As the others stared in shock, Ratchet inspected the bodies and let out a surprised gasp at his discovery.

"What is it, Ratchet?" Bulkhead asked. Ratchet closed his eyes, deciding to talk to Ultra Magnus about the discovery before telling the others.

Ultra Magnus stared at the children, who were all being quiet and nervous. They sat together in a small group while Ultra Magnus sat across the room. He felt like it was his duty as the person in charge of monitoring them to say something to calm them down but nothing came to mind as to what to tell the children.

"I'm sorry you guys had to see that." He finally said. The children sighed and looked away. They didn't want to let him know how scared they were. It was different letting the other members of the team know that something was upsetting but with Ultra Magnus, it was like they were expected to fall in line with the other members of Team Prime and not be scared. Not a word was spoken until hours later when the others came up.

"Ultra Magnus, I would like to show you the discovery now, sir." Ratchet sighed. He really didn't want to go to that room ever again, but he knew what he had to do. Ultra Magnus nodded and left the room with Ratchet. The others watched them as they slowly made their way down the stairs.

Ultra Magnus's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the corpses that were all over the floor.

"Did you examine the corpses for any clues as to how long they were there or who done this?" Ultra Magnus asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"There are no clues leading me to have a suspect or person of interest; however it was been going on for years. I could determine that by analyzing the corpses and discovering that some are older then others." Ratchet sighed. The truth was a disturbing one to him. Ultra Magnus raised an eyebrow.

"Just how long has this been going on?" He asked.

"Well, the earliest I could find was a couple years before I went to Earth with the rest of Team Prime and the latest was…. Yesterday." He sighed.

"So you mean to tell me that whoever was behind this is likely still doing this?" Ultra Magnus asked. Ratchet sighed.

"I'm afraid so." He replied slowly, grief making him sound older then he was.

Ultra Magnus looked at the corpses and hid his shudder.

"Come, we must tell the others about this discovery." He stated. Ratchet and Ultra Magnus slowly went up the stairs, neither in a hurry to tell the distressing news of their discovery.


	3. Chapter 3

~Sorry, if the communicator at the base is called something else but I'm just calling it the communicator. Warning: Character Death.~

Ultra Magnus and Ratchet sighed when they saw the others looking at them, hoping for an explanation. It was going to be hard to tell them but there was no way to hide it.

"We found out more about the bodies." Ultra Magnus started. Everyone listened intently to what he had to say. Ultra Magnus was about to tell the others but they found themselves at a loss for words. It was just too disturbing. He thought he could handle it but… he didn't want to tell the others.

"The latest the body was put there yesterday." Ratchet finally said, noticing Ultra Magnus's hesitation. Everyone gasped and shook. They looked around nervously as if the killer was in the room with them right now.

"I believe it's best if we leave the base until we can find the culprit." Ultra Magnus added.

"No! We should stay and catch the creep when he breaks in here!" Miko argued.

"Miko, he has clearly been doing this for quite a long time while we were here, what makes you think we can catch him now?" Ratchet argued.

"We know what to look for." Miko stated. "We know that someone is likely to break in and where he is probably going to go when he breaks in." Ratchet sighed, though what Miko said was true, he didn't like the idea of anyone being in danger while they wait for the person.

"It's too dangerous." Jack argued, siding with Ratchet.

"We need to stop him from hurting anyone else." Miko argued.

"She has a point." Smokescreen sighed.

"Maybe we could wait for Wheeljack, I mean he should be here soon, right?" Miko suggested thinking he wouldn't be too far away from the team.

Bulkhead sighed; he was about to tell her that when they tried to call Wheeljack, there was no answer, before he could, the communicator at the base rang. Ratchet answered it.

"Hello?" He said, trying not to seem scared or nervous.

"Look in the closet." The person on the other line said. He was using a voice changer so none of them could tell who it was. Bulkhead looked confused and went to the closet door. Miko followed him because she was curious to see what was in there. She screamed at the sight and Bulkhead backed up quickly.

"Wheeljack!" He cried. Miko shook. Everyone looked in the direction of the closet and gasped. Wheeljack was killed.

"You monster!" Bulkhead cried. He was about to break the communicator but Ratchet grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"We can't let our emotions get the best of us." Ratchet whispered. Bulkhead sighed and eased up a bit.

The guardians stepped closer to their human partners to protect them from the unseen threat.

"How did you get in here?" Jack found the courage to ask. The anonymous voice just laughed again; the cruel laugher echoed though the base. Arcee picked up Jack to protect him. Even though she doubted that the person was in the base at the time, she, as well as the other members of Team Prime were scared about the possibility. Ratchet's hand hovered near the button that would end the call, but he knew he had to keep the person on the line for as long as possible. Raf saw Ratchet's hesitation and realized that the plan would be to trace the call to see if that would give a hint as to where he is. Raf began to trace the call.

"Good luck with your foolish little plan." The anonymous voice laughed. The team froze, he could see them right now. Bee stepped closer to Raf, knowing that Raf needed to keep trying to trace him if they were to have any hope of ending the horror, but he was also worried about his young friend. The person ended the call. Raf shook his head.

"He was using a very strong signal jammer, I… I couldn't trace him." He explained slowly, he felt like he had let the team down, he was always the one who could work the computers the best, except more maybe Ratchet, and he felt guilty for letting them down. Raf slumped over, though he tried not to show that he was upset, the truth of the matter was that he was. Jack noticed how upset the youngest member of the team was and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"It will be ok, Raf." He said quietly, though he wasn't exactly convinced that it was true. Raf nodded shakily.

"I still think we should leave." Ratchet sighed. "I don't like the idea of being any closer to this guy then we have to be."

"No! We need to fight back; that's what Wheeljack would do!" Bulkhead yelled.

"And look how well his attitude turned out for him." Ultra Magnus said angrily, which prompted a shocked gasp from the others. He felt bad for how he said it, but his point was still the same.

"Then why don't you run, you coward!" Miko yelled in tears. Jack wanted desperately to say anything to calm her down but nothing came to mind. Everyone in the base fell into a stunned silence. It felt like hours, when in fact it was only a few minutes, before anyone spoke.

"I apologize for what I said, I realize that I should not have brought this tragedy up, however, I still firmly believe that it would be best if we find another place to stay for the time being. We do not want to risk any other member of our team… our family, getting hurt." Ultra Magnus apologized slowly. Everyone nodded. Miko and Bulkhead looked at each other, they wanted to fight but knew that it wouldn't help their friend. Each of the guardians transformed and their human partners went with them, Ratchet, Smokescreen and Ultra Magnus followed, unaware that they were being watched.


End file.
